Morello Yamasaki’s new E-bike to have SOS button for women riders

Morello Yamasaki, will be launching a new electric vehicle nicknamed "Nirbhaya" this Diwali.

Indo-Japanese firm Morello Yamasaki plans to launch a new electric two-wheeler christened Nirbhaya for women drivers in Ahmedabad this Diwali.

An Indo-Japanese electric two-wheeler manufacturer, Morello Yamasaki, will be launching a new electric vehicle nicknamed “Nirbhaya” this Diwali, specially targetted at women drivers. The new vehicle will be equipped with an SOS button for emergencies and will be offered at 10 percent discount for women drivers, said a top company official on Wednesday.

“We plan to launch this vehicle in the Ahmedabad market during Diwali this year,” said Rajit Arya, CEO, Morello Yamasaki, a joint-venture company between Mumbai-based Arya Group and Yamasaki Motors of Japan.

“The SOS button will be connected to the rider’s phone via the GPRS and will help women drivers send multiple SMSes to six different mobile numbers at the same time in case of an emergency,” said Arya on the sidelines of a conference on “Sustainable Mobility with

Electric Vehicles” organised by Confederation of Indian Industry and Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd here.

This will be third product for the e-bike manufacturer who sells 60 percent of it’s products to women every year. “The vehicle will be priced around Rs 35,000 and we will offering a special 10 percent discount to all women buyers,” he said adding that the company was in the process of launching a “high-speed” version of “Nirbhaya” in the next six months.

A prototype of the new vehicle was also kept on display at the conference venue. The company plans to launch ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi and other markets later this year.

Arya also announced that the company will be investing Rs 155 crore in setting up a manufacturing plant near Ahmedabad by 2015-16. “This new plant which will come up about 50 kilometers from Ahmedabad will initially have a capacity to produce 60,000 units of e-bikes by 2015-16. This capacity can be scaled up to a million units by 2019-20,” the official said.

The company will manufacture plastics, chassis, battery chargers, motors, controllers and other products at this new facility.

BOX

A sister concern of Mumbai-based Arya Group — Arya Hariyani Design & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (D&I) — operating in the real-estate sector, will be offering 2000 electric two-wheelers free-of-cost to each resident of an under-construction township scheme in Rajkot.